X2?S1 
132 A^ 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

By 
SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG 





SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 



By 



SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG 

n 

Founder of Hampton Institute 




WITH AN INTRODUCTION B-^ FRANCIS 
GREENWOOD PEABODY, FORMERLY 
PLUMMER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN 
MORALS Al HARVARD UNIVERSiT'i . 
AND A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE BY HELEN 
W. LUDLOW, OF IHAMPTON INSTIIUTE 






rillLSS Ol'- THE HAMPTON XORMAL 
ANU AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTIC, 
H A M P T ON, V I R C I N 1 A, I 9 1 .3 



Jl 



Real life makes real men. 

The attempt to cast all minds in one mould 
is useless. 

The educated man usually overestimates himself 
because his intellect has grown faster than his 
experience of life. 

Education is a means to an end. The end should 

determ ine the means. The neglect of. this is the 

rock on which thousands are wrecked. 



INTRODUCTION 

FRANCIS GREFNWOOD PRABODY 

Formerly Phimmer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard 

THESE sayings and teachings of General Arm- 
strong are collected for the sake of those 
who are trying to do the kind of work in 
which he led the way. Teachers in colleges, 
school committees in town and country , adminis- 
trators in institutions, directors of industrial affairs 
who wish to make business an instrument of social 
service, missionaries in foreign lands and in the 
equally unpenetrated jungles of the great cities, 
and statesmen concerned with the perplexing 
problems of racial adjustment and political efti- 
ciency, — all these, and many discouraged observ- 
ers of our national tendencies, may find confidence 
and hope renewed by these sane and searching 
words, and should keep this little tract before them 
as they try to promote an education which pre- 
pares for life. 

No one can read the following pages without 
recognizing that General Armstrong, in a degree 
hardly equaled in the history of education, had 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

the gift of prophecy. He foresaw and foretold 
with extraordinary precision the tendencies and 
transitions which within the last twenty-five yeai^ 
have practically revolutionized the principles of 
education. The training of the hand and eye as 
well as of the mind — or rather, the training of the 
mind through observation and manual labor — the 
moral effect of technical skill, the conception of 
labor as a moral force, the test of education in effi- 
ciency, the subordination in industrial training of 
production to instruction, the advantages to both 
sexes of co-education in elementary schools, and 
the vanity of education without discipline in thrift, 
self-help, love of work, and willingness to sacri- 
fice, — all these familiar maxims of modern voca- 
tional training are set forth with the assurance of a 
social prophet in these few pages of occasional 
utterances, in which the instinct of a creative 
genius anticipates the science of today. 

To this effect of original thought must be added 
the force of an incisive style. The manner is the 
symbol of the man — eager, masterful, flashing, and 
rapid, like a commander giving orders to himself 
and to his men. Armstrong was as careless for 
style in writing as he was for daintiness in dress ; 
but in both he was habitually a soldier, well-girt, 
ready for action, picturesque, and free. His sayings 

8 



INTRODUCTION 

dwell in the mind as his presence dwells in the 
memory. Much of what follows in these pages 
should be committed to memory by an> one who 
wants to make education a medium of personality. 
Armstrong's monument is the school which he 
founded, and which, though it has expanded won- 
derfully in number of students and in scope of 
teaching, still rests securely on his prophetic teach- 
ing and on the beautiful tradition of his conse- 
crated life. A distinguished American, being 
asked by a Northern friend where his son might 
get the best industrial training, is said to have 
answered, " Since you are so unfortunate as to be 
neither a Negro nor an Indian, your son cannot 
have the best of such training w hich this country 
has to give.'" Even if this claim to absolute leader- 
ship be a friendly exaggeration, it remains true 
that the school at Hampton has cherished and per- 
petuated in the most striking manner the lessons 
which this little collection of Armstrong's sayings 
illustrates. Thrift and self-help, the trained hand 
and the disciplined conscience, sacrifices without 
which, as Armstrong wrote, " no work counts for 
much," yet cheerful happiness, such as made him 
later say, " I never gave up or sacrificed anything 
in my life," — these are not only traits which will 
remain conspicuous at Hampton, but are not less 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 



the qualities which, for students and teachers 
engaged in any kind of education, may change 
a self-deceived and fruitless culture into an educa- 
tion for life. 



10 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

HELEN W. LUDLOW 

C!TANDING with uncovered head by General 
^^ Armstrong's grave in the little burial ground 
of Hampton Institute, Dr. WicklifFe Rose, Gen- 
eral Agent of the Peabody Education Fund, said 
to his friend, Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Secretary 
of the General Education Board : " Do you real- 
ize that this man inaugurated what we call the new 
educational movement — the movement away from 
the abstract to the real? While no one can be 
said to have created it, he really inaugurated the 
movement which is changing the character of all 
educational processes and institutions." 

Samuel Chapman Armstrong was born on 
January 30, 1839, in a missionary home on a mag- 
nificent mountain slope of Maui, one of the Ha- 
waiian Islands. His parents, Richard Armstrong 
of Pennsylvania and Clarissa Chapman of Massa- 
chusetts (a sister of Chief Justice Chapman) were 
missionaries of the American Board from 1831 
until 1847, when Dr. Armstrong was appointed 
Hawaiian Minister of Public Instruction. Grow- 
ing up in this environment, often making horseback 

11 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

and canoe tours around the islands inspecting 
schools, and living much among the natives, the son 
received impressions which were to develop into 
convictions and give him inspiration for his life 
work among other backward races. 

In 1860 he came to the United States to com- 
plete his education at Williams College, Mass., 
under Dr. Mark Hopkins, with whom his rela- 
tions became like those of a son. For his alma 
mater and its great leader he always maintained 
enthusiastic and grateful affection. Graduating with 
honor from Williams in 1862, he entered the Union 
Army with a captain's commission, leaving it at 
the close of the war Brevet Brigadier General. 
Of the influence of some of his army experience 
on his future life work he has written : " Two 
and a half years' service with Negro soldiers as 
lieutenant colonel and colonel of the Eighth and 
Ninth Regiments of the United States Colored 
Troops convinced me that the freedmen had ex- 
cellent qualities and capacities and deserved as 
good a chance as any people. Education methods 
to meet their needs must include special practical 
training and take -into account the forces of he- 
redity and environment. A dream of the Hamp- 
ton School, nearly as it is, came to me a few times 
during the war — an industrial system, not only for 

12 



EDUCATION OF TfJE HAND 

the sake of self-support and intelligent labor but 
also for the sake of character. And it seemed 
equally clear that the people of the country would 
support a wise work for the freedmen. I think so 
yet." 

In March 1866 General Armstrong was placed 
as Freedmen's Bureau officer in charge of ten 
counties of eastern Virginia with headquarters at 
Hampton, to manage Negro affairs and readjust, 
if possible, the relations of the races. This diffi- 
cult and delicate task he so performed that when, 
after two years, civil courts were everywhere else 
re-established, the military court at Hampton was 
kept up by request of the community for some six 
months longer. 

These two years also confirmed his ideas of 
true education and brought the opportunity to 
apply them to the needs of the freedmen. There 
was no popular enthusiasm then in any section for 
the manual-labor plan in education. People said: 
" It has been tried at Oberlin and elsewhere and 
given up ; it won't pay." " Of course," said he, 
" it cannot pay in a money way, but it will pay in a 
moral way ; it will make men and women." The 
American Missionary Association consented to 
try the plan he urged, and wisely asked him to 
take charge of it. The Hampton Normal and 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

Agricultural Institute was thus begun in 1868, but 
two years later, in 1870, it was granted a liberal 
charter by the State of Virginia, becoming in- 
dependent of any association or sect and of the 
Government. In 1878 Indians were admitted. 
The school has been from the first devoted to a 
demonstration of the method of learning by doing- 
a movement away from the abstract to the real. 
In the twenty-five years he lived to be Hampton's 
Principal, General Armstrong's life was given to 
pushing this idea, with a clear perception of its 
universal value and significance. 

The following memoranda were found at 
Hampton among General Armstrong's private pa- 
pers and were left with his will to be opened after 
his death. 

Those of his friends who have seen them have 
found them so characteristic and full of his spirit 
that they have thought they should not be with- 
held from a wider circle. 

MEMORANDA 

Now, when all is bright, the family together, 
and there is nothing to alarm and very much to be 
thankful for, it is well to look ahead and, perhaps, 
to say the things that I should wish known should 
I suddenly die. 

14 



IJIOGRAPHICAI, NOTE 

I wish to be buried in the school graveyard, 
among the students, where one of them would 
have been put had he died next. 

I wish no monument or fuss whatever over 
my grave ; only a simple headstone, no text or 
sentiment inscribed, only my name and date. I 
wish the simplest funeral service, without sermon 
or attempt at oratory — a soldier's funeral. 

I hope there will be enough friends to see that 
the work of the school shall continue. Unless 
some shall make sacrifice for it, it cannot go on. 

A work that requires no sacrifice does not 
count for much in fulfilling God's plans. But what 
is commonly called sacrifice is the best, happiest 
use of one's self and one's resources — the best 
investment of time, strength, and means. He who 
makes no such a sacrifice is most to be pitied. 
He is a heathen, because he knows nothing of 
God. 

In the school, the great thing is not to quar- 
rel ; to pull all together ; to refrain from hasty, 
unwise words and actions ; to unselfishly and 
wisely seek the best good of all ; and to get rid 
of workers whose temperaments are unfortunate, 
whose heads are not level, no matter how much 
knowledge or culture they may have. Cantanker- 
ousness is worse than heterodoxy. 

15 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

I wish no efforl: at a biography of myself made. 
Good friends might get up a pretty good story, 
but it would not be the whole truth. The truth of 
a life usually lies deep down — we hardly know 
ourselves — God only does. I trust His mercy. 
The shorter one's creed the better. " Simply to 
Thy cross I cling" is enough for me. 

I am most thankful for my parents, my Ha- 
waiian home, for war experiences, for college days 
at Williams, and for life and work at Hampton. 
Hampton has blessed me in so many ways ; along 
with it have come the choicest people of this 
country for my friends and helpers, and then such 
a grand chance to do something directly for those 
set free by the war, and indirectly for those who 
were conquered; and Indian work has been an- 
other great privilege. 

Few men have had the chance that I have 
had. 1 never gave up or sacrificed anything in 
my life — have been, seemingly, guided in every- 
thing. 

Prayer is the greatest thing in the world. It 
keeps us near to God. My own prayer has been 
most weak, wavering, inconstant ; yet it has been 
the best thing I have ever done. I think this is a 
universal truth ; what comfort is there in any but 
the broadest truth? 



16 



lUOGRAPHlCAI. NOTE 

I am most curious to get a glimpse of the next 
world. How will it seem ? Perfectly fair and 
perfectly natural, no doubt. We ought not to fear 
death. It is friendly. 

The only pain that comes at the thought of it 
is for my true, faithful wife and blessed, dear 
children. But they will be brave about it all, and, 
in the end, stronger. They are my greatest com- 
fort. 

Hampton must not go down. See to it you 
who are true to the black and red children of the 
land, and to just ideas of education. 

The loyalty of my old soldiers, and of my 
students, has been an unspeakable comfort. 

It pays to follow one's light— to put God and 
country first ; ourselves afterwards. 

Taps has just sounded. 

S. C. Armstrong 

liarnt>ion, V'a. 

New Year's Eve. 1S90 



17 



EDUCATION OF THE HAND 

The training of the hand has been the neglected 
factor in our civilization. It is pushing its way 
into the common schools — opposed, but sure to 

spread,. Address at Oaliii College, 1891 

The people of the country do not yet under- 
stand the need of supporting professors \vho shall 
impart practical knowledge and teach habits of 
labor and self-reliance, as they do the need of en? 
dowing Greek professorships. Report for 1876 

Character is the best outcome of the labor 
system. That makes it worth its cost many times 
over. It is not cheap, but it pays. Report for 1891 

The moral advantages of industrial training 
over all other methods justify the expense. 

Report for 1872 

Experience has strengthened my conviction of 
labor as a moral force. Report for 1888 

in all men, education is conditioned not alone 
on an enlightened head and a changed heart, but 

18 . 



ROUGATION OF THE H.\NI> 

very largely on a routine of industrious habits, 
which is to character what the foundation is to the 
pyramid. The summit should glow with a divine 
light, interfusing and qualifying the whole mass, 
but it should never be forgotten that it is only 
upon a foundation of regular daily activities that 
there can be any fine and permanent upbuilding. 
Morality and industry generally go together. 

In the great Missionary Conference in Lon- 
don in 1888, it was said that converts in Africa 
need industrial education for moral reasons, and 
converts in India to keep them from starving. 

Self-support must go along with Christian liv- 
ing. It is hard to be honest if you are starving. 
A man who can support himself is more likely to 
lead a Christian life. 

Subtract hard work from life, and in a few 
months it will have all gone to pieces. Labor, 
next to the grace of God in the heart, is the great- 
est promoter of morality, the greatest power for 

civilization. Address at Mohunk 1S90 

The time assigned to labor reduces that usu- 
ally devoted to study one-fourth, yet progress is 
retarded much, less, if at all. The ra/te of study is 

19 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

increased, both by bodily vigor and by the desire 
to make the most of hard-earned chances, so that 
the curriculum is as extensive as it would be with- 
out labor, but the highest advantages accrue from 
it as a means of strengthening character. 

Report for lb73 

The plan of combining mental and physical 
labor is a priori full of objections. The course of 
study does not run smoothly ; there is action and 
reaction, depression and delight ; but the reserve 
forces of character no longer lie dormant. They 
make the rough places smooth ; the school be- 
comes a drill ground for future work. It sends 
men and women rather than scholars into the 

world. Report for JS70 

Labor must be required of all ; non-w^orkers: 
being an aristocracy ruinous to manual-labor 
schools. 

Address before the National Educational Association 1872 

Organized industries," giving the students a 
chance to meet bills for board and clothing by 
labor, high standards of discipline, carefully weed- 
ing out the unworthy but excluding all corporal or 
other humiliating punishment whatever, a per- 
fectly fair and firm administration, and the highest 

20 



FDUCATION OF THF: HAND 

order of skill in teaching, these make a combi- 
nation of influences that will be ett'ective, if any- 
thing can be, to the production of skilful, perse- 
vering teachers, of wise leaders, of peacemakers, 
rather than noisy and dangerous demagogues. 

Report for 1ST2 

The temporal salvation of the colored race for 
some time to come is to be won out of the ground. 
Skilful agriculturists and mechanics are needed 
rather than poets and orators. Report for 1H72 

The discipline of the farmer is as strict as that 
of the teacher. The man who leads in the de- 
bating club may be the last and laziest in the field ; 
one who is dull in mathematics may be at the 
head of the working squad. Thus we are guarded 
against the one-sided estimate of ordinary schools. 
With us position is achieved in the field as well as 
in the recitation room. Labor is honored and a 
just pride is felt by those who succeed in working 
out their expenses. Report for 1873 

The Negro race will succeed or fail as it shall 
devote itself with energy to agriculture and me- 
chanic arts, or avoid these pursuits, and its teach- 
ers must be inspired with the spirit of hard work 
and acquainted with the ways that lead to material 

success. Report for 1873 

21 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

Teaching and farming go well together in the 
present condition of things (in the South). 71ie 
teacher-farmer is the man for the times ; he is 
essentially an educator throughout the year. 

'"Southern Workman," March IShV 

To put into every state an agricultural school 
and experiment station open to the colored race 
and adapted to their especial needs, in direct com- 
munication with their leading farmers, spreading 
through circulars and bulletins practical informa- 
tion and furnishing stimulus to thousands who now 
never see anything of the sort,— this is a work 
which should be provided for in any broad, na- 
tional plan for educational improvement in the 

South. "Southern Workman," April lfi9V 

We believe that whenever a " manual-labor 
system " is attempted, it should be carefully ad- 
justed to the demands of scientific and practici^l 
education. The question at once arises what this 
manual labor should be. There are two theories, 
of which the first is that its entire aim should be 
to give the means to students of supporting them- 
selves, that a profitable farm on a very large scale 
should enable a large number of students to sup- 
port themselves by agriculture, and that work- 
shops on a large scale for the manufacture of some 

22 



RDIJCATION OF [HE HANI) 

simple fabrics of universal consumption should 
enable a large number of students to support them- 
selves by mechanic arts ; that in both these cases 
the main theory should be self-supporting industry 
and not educational industry. The second theory 
is that the primary object of manual labor in both 
departments should be educational ; that is, that 
the work should be first of all done with a view to 
perfect the student in the best processes, and to 
make him scientifically and practically a first-class 
agriculturist and mechanic. While the first of 
these theories may at times be desirable, the 
second is essential, and all schools which are 
destined to be permanently successful must be 
founded upon the fact that aid given to them by 
individuals is not to assist ten, twenty, or fifty 
young people to support themselves, but to enable 
hundreds of them to obtain a thorough, practical, 
and scientific education, in order to develop the 
industrial resources of the nation. Evidently such 
an education must be in the outset expensive, for 
no harvest can be reaped without a libera! sowing 
of seed ; and while institutions which are self-sup- 
porting are good, the schools which give the best 
ultimate results and tell most favorabh upon the 
national life, are those which, while managed with 
the utmost thrift and economy, ha\ e for their 

23 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

primary object education rather than production. 

Report for 1876 

Back of any theory Hes a personal experience 
which forces us more and more strongly into faith 
in the as yet unmeasured power for good which 
a well-administered industrial system exerts over 
those who, either by choice or by necessity, are 
brought under its influence. Setting aside alto- 
gether what may be called its commercial value, 
we find it to be one of the strongest moral forces that 
we have at our disposal and are inclined to look 
upon it as the cornerstone of civilization of the 
two races with whose education we have to do. 
We do not hesitate to say that we have found its 
influence in the creation of character to be so 
marked that we should be loth to give it up as our 
best allj , under God, in the work which we have 
undertaken. Report for 1884 

The manual-labor system w^as made funda- 
mental here from the first for its own sake, with 
full conviction of its value in the symmetrical 
development of the individual or the race, and 
with readiness to sacrifice to this the necessary 
per cent of mere mental culture. Experience for 
sixteen years confirm^ this conviction and is 



24 



EDUCATION OF THE HAND 

proving that industrial training leads, on the 
whole and in the long run, not against but in favor 

of mental progress. "Southern Workman," July IS84 

The weekly workday breaks in upon the 
study but wakes up the mind. More actual prog- 
ress can be accomplished with it than without it. 

"Southern Workman, " July 1S84 

Another advantage watched here with the 
greatest interest from year to year is the moral 
stimulus of the work idea and habit, the earnest- 
ness it gives to character, the quickening and 
strengthening to intellect. 

"Southern Workman, " July ISS4 

Determination, courage, endurance, faith, — 
these are some of the things which flourish in the 
hard conditions of our night school, and experience 
has taught us that it is only through contact with 
the real things of life that these virtues can be 
made permanent and characteristic. 

"Southern Workman," August 1SS7 

A boy or girl, who does not expect to be a 
mechanic, is all the better for knowing how to 
handle common tools — to mend a school bench, 
make a blackboard or a set of shelves. But we 
feel that the student who can take a regular 

25 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

apprenticeship, or a partial one even, gets most out 
of the school ; and most of its bone and sinew 
comes up through the shops, with from one to 
two years in the night school, ending with the day 
classes and working two days in the week. 

"Southern Workman, " December 1889 

What, then, is the superior advantage of ap- 
prenticeship over technical instruction ? First and 
chiefly it is that element of reality which gives 
force and meaning to life ; the interest in work, 
the habits of carefulness, accuracy, thoroughness, 
that come from this element ; the strength born of 
purpose and responsibility, of being put in touch 
with business tests and business standards. 

"Southern Workman," December 1889 

Profit (financial) from our industrial opera- 
tions is incidental, not essential. Only getting 
back cost of material and of student's labor is 
essential. But a dollar earned is better than a 
dollar given. Man making is first, money making 
is second. But the skill and t*he drill that make 
money may be good for men. Report for 1891 

Instruction must be considered as much as 
production. The shop is for the boy, not the boy 

for the shop. Report for 1891 

26 



EDUCATION OF THE HAND 



The idea of self-help can be carried out only 
by productive industries. Honestly giving value 
for value, labor becomes a stepping stone, a ladder, 
to education, to all higher things, to success, man- 
hood, and character. Report for 1892 



27 



EDUCATION OF THE MIND 

The end of mental training is a discipline and 
power, not derived so much from knowledge 
as from the method and spirit of the student. 

Report for 1870 

To me the end of education for the classroom 
is more and more clear. It should be straight 

thinking. Report for 1S99 

The power to think clearly and straight comes 
from proper training. It is most successful when 
that training is obtained through self-help, which 
underlies the best work of all men. 

Address at Oahu College, 1891 

Schools are not for brain alone but for the 
whole man. The teachers should be not mere 
pedagogues but citizens. 

"Southern Workman, " March 1892 

The personal force of the teacher is the main 
thing. Outfit and apparatus, about which so much 
fuss is made, are secondary. 

"Southern Workman," March 1891 
28 



EDUCATION OF THE MIND 

Character does not develop as rapidly as 
mind. School work is (commonly) directed to 
mind, indirectly to morals, and if the latter are 
benefited it is from the personal quality and 
influence of the teacher rather than from sys- 
tematic training. "Southern Workman," October 1880 

Educate the whole man is the idea ; fit the 
pupil for the life he is likely to lead. 

Spelling books do not, as a matter of course, 
make manly fibre, and practical self-restraint is 
not the immediate result of learning. 

" Southern Workman, " July 1876 

Books are essential to knowledge, but not to 
wisdom and manly force. 

Address before American Missionary Association, October 1877 

Education is a slowly working leaven in an 
immense mass, whose pervasive, directive force 
cannot be felt generally for many years. 

' ' Southern Workman, ' ' January 1877 

Too much is expected of mere book-knowl- 
edge ; too much is expected of one generation. 
The real upward movement, the leveling up, not 
of persons but of people, will be, as in all history, 
almost imperceptible, to be measured only by 

long periods. "Southern Workman," July 1876 

29 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

I have for many years been preaching that 
knowledge is not power. Undigested knowledge 
produces a malady sometimes called the " big- 
head." Address at Oahu College, 1891 

The Negro is more successful in getting knowl- 
edge than in using it. To him, as to all, knowl- 
edge comes easily but wisdom slowly. 

Report for 1891 

I think too much stress is laid on the impor- 
tance of choosing one of the great lines of study— 
the classics or the natural sciences— and too little 
upon the vital matter of insight into the life and 
spirit of that which is studied. Vital knowledge 
cannot be got from books ; it comes from insight, 
and we attain it by earnest and steady thought, 
under wise direction. Report for 1870 

Over-education and lack of personal training 
are dangers with the weak races. The proper 
limit of teaching is difl&cult to settle but is much 
ignored in the philanthropic work of the day ; 
hence waste of work and disappointment. For 
the average pupil too much is as bad as too little. 

"Southern Workman," October 1880 

The past of our colored population has been 
such that an institution devoted especially to them 

30 



EDUCATION OF THE MIND 

must provide a training more than usually com- 
prehensive, must include both sexes and a variety 
of occupation, must produce moral as well as 
mental strength, and while making its students 
first-rate mechanical laborers must also make them 
first-rate men and women. Report for 1876 

An English course embracing reading and 
elocution, geography, mathematics, history, the 
science of civil government, the natural sciences, 
the study of the mother tongue and its literature, 
the leading principles of mental and moral science 
and political economy, would, I think, make up a 
curriculum that would exhaust the best powers of 
nineteen-twentieths of those who would, for years 
to come, enter the Institute. Should, however, 
any pupil have a rare aptitude for the classics and 
desire to become a man of letters in the largest 
sense, it would be our duty to provide special 
instruction for him or send him where he could 

receive it. Report for 1870 

Exceptional talent should have exceptional 
scope, but, as in nature, the broadest cultivation is 
on the plain or tableland. Genius doesn't need as 
much attention as mediocrity. The average is the 
right base for educational operations. 

31 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

The great need of the Negro is logic, and the 
subjection of feeHng to reason, yet in supplying 
his studies we must exercise his curiosity, his love 
of the marvelous, and his imagination, as means 
of sustaining his enthusiasm. Report for 1870 

Our work has been to civilize ; instruction in 
books is not all of it. General deportment, habits 
of living and of labor, right ideas of life and duty, 
are taught in order that graduates may be qualified 
to teach others these important lessons of life. 

Report for 1876 

These people are constantly victimized through 
their ignorance of business methods, and are 
usually careless and inefficient in such matters. 
Every student ought to know how to make out a 
bill or a promissory note and how to give a proper 
receipt, and should be familiar with the ways of 
buying and selling land. 

Address before the National Educational Association, 1872 

I prefer to have as pupils those from seven- 
teen to twenty-two years of age, because it is the 
most formative period; those younger may be 
more plastic but don't " sta.y put" so well. There 
is too much putty in the early teens. Later there 
is better mental digestion, more bodily hardness, 

32 



RDUCATION FOR 1,1 FF. 

and more intelligent, decisive, reliable choice of 

ends. Report for 1893 

Some students acquire with difficulty but this 
class is likely to furnish many useful teachers who 
may have the best elements of success, even if 
they are not brilliant scholars. 

Nothing pays like working for ideas. Ideas, 
like bullets, are at the front of progress, where 

men should be. Frum a private letter. January ISHU 



33 



EDUCATION OF THE CHARACTER 



R 



esponsibility is the best developing force, 
and development is the end of all education. 

Address at Oahu College, 1891 



Many a youth has the disadvantage of bis 
advantages in that he does not earn his education 
by a struggle, which in itself creates the finest 

thing in manhood. "Southern Workman," September ISSD 

Men need to Be thrown upon their knees 
sometimes ; defeat and difficulty are our best teach- 
ers. From a private letter, November 1S83 

People become trustworthy by being trusted ; 
they learn life's lessons in life, not outside it. 

" Southern Workman," September I SSO 

There is no better work than putting the bot- 
tom of the ladder where the man is, so that he can, 
by his own effort, climb to the top. Report fur 1S80 

Doing what " can't be done " is the glory of 
living. 

Restless energy is a weakness ; balanced ac- 
tivity is the thing. 

34 



RDUCATION OF THE CHARAfM KK 

Habits cannot be reversed at once like a steam 
engine. It takes time, and in time it can be done. 

" Southern Workman. " .September ISSO 

The way to strengthen the weak is con- 
stantly to test them under favorable conditions. 
To change low ideas of their mutual relations into 
higher ones they must be trained, not in the 
abstract, but in the concrete. 

Manhood is best brought out b\ recognition 
of it. Citizenship, with the common school, is 
the great developing force in this country. There 
is nothing like faith to bring out the manly quality. 

It is important that the teachers of common 
schools be fitted and enjoined to give to their 
pupils instruction in the details and duties of daily 
living. Much can be done to popularize right 
hygienic ideas and sound ideas generally, but onI> 
by the greatest patience and perseverance. 

" .Southern ff'orhinun. " Junuary 1H7H 

Didactic and dogmatic work has little to do 
with the formation of character, which is our point. 
That is done by making the school a little world 
in itself; mingling hard days' work in field or 
shop with social pleasures, making success depend 

35 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

on behavior rather than on study marks. School 
Hfe should be Hke real life. 

"Southern Workman, " November 1880 

There is such a thing as too many students, 
especially when the work is upon character and 

morals. Report for 1876 

Good, wholesome reading is an excellent thing 
for the formation of character. 

A business education is conducive to honesty 
and promotes thrift and success. 

Address before the National Educational Association, 1872 

By and by it will be part of a liberal education 
to devote a year or more to personal labor for the 

unfortunate. Address at Oaku College, 189 1 

Sociology is the great practical science of the 
day and leads all others. The Kingdom of Heaven 
will come through sociology well studied and 
applied wisely, in a level-headed way. 

Letter to Robert C. Ogden, 1892 

I regard the idea of a mission, in the mind of 
an Indian, Negro, or any youth, as a directive and 
helpful force of the greatest value in the formation 
of character. 

Address before the National Educational Association, 188t 
36 



EDUCATION OF THE CHARACTFK 

The normal-school graduate of the South 
should be of the people, above them, yet of them, 
in order to make natural or probable a lifelong 
service in their behalf. 

Address before the National Educational Association, 1S72 

Conversion is indeed the starting point of a 
better life ; it is to character what the seed is to 
the ripe fruit. The choice of God's service is the 
initial step; the goal is the rounded, perfect, Chris- 
tian life. To take the step requires the decision, 
possibly of a moment; to reach the goal is the 
struggle of a lifetime. Viewed thus, one under- 
stands that it is not the planting of the seed which 
costs, but the wise and vigilant care of the grow- 
ing crop. 

All over the world we find men accepting, 
with comparative readiness, the theories of Chris- 
tianity, while its moralities remain beyond their 
reach ; and this must be so until the reconstruc- 
tive power of a many-sided training is recognized, 
and systems are adopted which build up men 

"all round." Report for 18Sf 

The family is the unit of civilization, and the 
conditions of pure family living are the first things 
to be created in educating men and women. Hence 

37 



EDUCATION FOR LIFK 

the co-education of the sexes is indispensable. 

"Southern Workman," February 1S81) 

If the condition of women is the true gauge of 
civiHzation, how would we be working, except 
indirectly, for a real elevation of society by train- 
ing young men alone ? In every respect the op- 
portunities of the sexes should be equal. 

Report for 1870 

Mingle the sexes ; satisfy human nature in a 
reasonable way ; fit them for life by letting them 
live as they will have to live ; and they will have 

more character. "Southern Workman," September 1880 

There is no better work for the South than to 
help its white as well as its black youth to the 
education which the ravages of made war im- 
possible. Our reconstruction laws have been like 
a bridge of wood over a river of fire. Lifting the 
people by Christian education is casting up a high- 
way for the Prince of Peace. Report for 1884 

Real progress is not in increase of wealth or 
power, but is gained in wisdom, in self-control, in 
guiding principles, and in Christian ideas. That is 
the only true reconstruction. To that Hampton's 
work is devoted. Report for 1881 

38 



KDU CATION OF \HE CH ARACTKK 

The education needed is one that touches 
upon the whole range of Hfe, that aims at the form- 
ation of good habits and sound principles, that con- 
siders the details of each day : that enjoins, in 
respect to diet, regularity, proper selection, and 
good cooking ; in respect to habits, suitable cloth- 
ing, exercise, cleanliness of persons and quarters, 
and ventilation, also industry and thrift ; and, in 
respect to all things, intelligent practice and self- 

restramt. "Southern Workman," January IS 7S 

There are two objective points before us. 
One is the training of the intellect, storing it with 
the largest amount of knowledge, producing the 
brightest examples of culture ; the other is the 
more difficult one of attempting to educate in the 
broadest sense of the word, to draw out a com- 
plete manhood. The former is a laborious but 
simple work ; the latter is full of difficulty. It is not 
easy to surround the student with a perfectly bal- 
anced system of influences. The value of every 
good appliance is limited and ceases when not 
perfectly adjusted to the higher end. The needle, 
the broom, and the washtub, the awl, the plane, 
and the plow, become the allies of the globe, the 
blackboard, and the textbook. Report for ISTO 



39 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

The average Negro student needs a regime 
which shall control the twenty-four hours of each 
day ; thus only can the old ideas and ways be 
pushed out and new ones take their place. The 
formation of good habits is fundamental in our 
work. In a Northern school they may, perhaps, 
be presupposed ; with us they are an objective 
point — one that, however, is easily reached, for 
the Negro pupil, like the Negro soldier, is readily 
transformed under wise control into remarkable 
tidiness and good conduct generally. 

"Southern Workman, " February IS'S'2 

Of all our work, that upon the heart is the 
most important ; there can be no question as to 
the paramount necessity of teaching the vital pre- 
cepts of the Christian faith and of striving to 
awaken a genuine enthusiasm for a higher life that 
shall be sustained and shall be the strong support 
of the young workers who may go out to be 
examples to their race. Report for I870 

Our most perplexing cases have been those of 
honest, well-meaning students, either of limited 
ability and fine character, or of low propensity 
or childishness, or coarseness of character. One 
of the latter class may be zealous and there may 
be power in him that will be used in a good or 

40 



EDUCATION OF THE CHARACTER 

bad cause ; yet his evil traits will be quickly caught 
by the pliant and younger ones around him. He 
may finally become a strong and worthy man, but 
meanwhile great mischief is wrought; the tone of 
the school is lowered, and many have learned 
wickedness of which they can scarcely be cured. 

Report for 1H7I) 

The question with the Negroes is not one of 
special proficiency, of success in one direction — 
the pursuit of knowledge — but of success all around. 
It is one of morals, industry, self-restraint; of 
power to organize society, to draw social lines 
between the decent and indecent, to form public 
sentiment that shall support pure morals, and to 
show common sense in the relations of life. 

"Southern Workman, " July 1876 

To implant right motive power and good hab- 
its aided, by the student's own perceptions, to 
make him train himself, is the end of discipline. 
Yet there is need of much external force, mental 
and moral, especially upon the plastic natures with 
which we deal. There must be study of the charac- 
ter, advice, sympathy, and, above all, a judicious 

letting alone. Report for U70 

Our military drill has been found of decided 
assistance, not only because of its effect in making 

41 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

certain minor virtues habitual, but also because 
it makes possible a training in self-discipline 
through our students' court martial, and does much 
to promote that esprit de corps in which the Negro 
is markedly lacking. 

Manifestly too, it gives a certain sparkle to 
the dull round of daily duty which is not without 
its influence upon both teachers and pupils. The 
music of a band and the shining of an occasional 
epaulette do a great deal toward enlivening long 
days in the carpenter shop or the laundry, as 
everywhere else. " A merry heart goes half the 
way." "Southern Workman, " April 1886 

With the freed people music is the only ade- 
quate interpreter of the past and offers for their 
future a lifting, inspiring force not half appreciated. 

Getting wealth is desirable for the freedman ; 
it makes him a safer and better citizen and creates 
favorable conditions for that morality, the want of 
which is his weak point. Report for I889 

It remains to make the best of things. Those 
who are hopeless disarm themselves and may as 
well go to the rear; men and women of faith, 

optimists, to the front. Address at Oahu College, 1891 

42 



EDUCATION OF THE CHARACTER 

Mere optimism is stupid; sanctified common 
sense is the force that wins. Work for God and 
man is full of detail; it needs organization, and 
that requires subordination, sometimes painful 
holding of the tongue; gabble and gossip, even 
that of the pious, is one of the most fatal devices 
of the Evil One ; the friction and fuss in God's 
army does much to defeat it. Working together 
is as important as working at all. 

Address at Oafiu College, 1891 



43 



GENERAL ARMSTRONG'S FIRST 
ANNUAL REPORT (1870) 

We have before us this question : What should 
be the character of an educational institu- 
tion devoted to the poorer classes of the South? 
It is presumed that the greatest amount of good, 
the wisest expenditure of effort and money are 
sought. 

It is useless at present to expect the ignorant 
whites to accept instruction side by side with the 
colored race. To a broad impartiality the Negro 
only responds. Let us consider, therefore, what 
answer to our problem is indicated by the charac- 
ter and needs of the freed people. Plainly a sys- 
tem is required which shall be at once construc- 
tive of mental and moral worth, and destructive 
of the vices characteristic of the slave. What are 
these vices ? They are improvidence, low ideas 
of honor and morality, and a general lack of di- 
rective energy, judgment, and foresight. Thus 
disabled, the ex-slave enters upon the merciless 
competition incident to universal freedom. Politi- 
cal power being placed in his hands, he becomes 



44 



GENERAL ARMSTRONGS FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 

the prey of the demagogue or attempts that low 
part himself. In either case he is the victim of 
his greatest weakness— vanity. Mere tuition is 
not enough to rescue him from being forever a 
tool, politically and otherwise. The educated man 
usually overestimates himself, because his intellect 
has grown faster than his experience in life ; but 
the danger to the Negro is greater, proportion- 
ally, as his desire is to shine rather than to do. 
His deficiencies of character are, 1 believe, worse 
for him and the world than his ignorance. But, 
with these deficiencies, are a docility and en- 
thusiasm for improvement, and a perseverance in 
the pursuit of it, which form a basis of great hope, 
and justify any outlav and the ablest service in his 
behalf. 

At Hampton, Va., a spot central and accessi- 
ble from a wide extent of country, we are trying 
to solve the problem of an education best suited to 
the needs of the poorer classes of the South, by 
sending out to them teachers of moral strength as 
well as mental culture. To this end the most prom- 
ising youths are selected. The poverty of these 
pupils has required the introduction of manual 
labor. Let us examine the system in its three- 
fold aspect, industrial, moral, and intellectual, and 
disciplinary or administrative. 

45 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

First : The plan of combining mental and 
physical labor is a priori full of objections. It is 
admitted that it involves friction, constant em- 
barrassment, and apparent disadvantage to educa- 
tional advancement, as well as to the profits of 
various industries. But to the question, "Do your 
students have sufficient time to study all their les- 
sons faithfully ? " I should answer, " Not enough, 
judging from the common use of time ; but under 
pressure they make use of the hours they have ; 
there is an additional energy put forth, an in- 
creased rate of study which makes up for the 
time spent in manual labor, while the physical 
vigor gained affords abundant strength for severe 
mental labor." Nothing is of more benefit than 
this compulsory waking up of the faculties. After 
a life of drudgery the plantation hand will, under 
this system, brighten and learn surprisingly well. 

In the girls' industrial housework depart- 
ments, there is an assignment, for a period, of a 
certain number to certain duties. On the farm, 
the plan of working the whole force of young men 
for a few hours each day has been given up for 
the better one of dividing them into five squads, 
each of which works one day of each week, and 
all on Saturdays. All are paid by the hour for 
their service, at the rate of from four to ten 

46 



GENERAL ARMSTRONG'S FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 

cents, according to the kind of work done. Under 
these arrangements our industries thrive and were 
never so hopeful as now. The very difficult prob- 
lem of creating a profitable industry for girls has 
been solved in the most fortunate manner by sup- 
plying the boys at a fair price with clothing made 
of good material. Our students, both young men 
and young women, go to their appointed duties 
with cheerfulness and the school is full of the 
spirit of self-help. 

However the future may decide the question, 
our two years' experience of the manual-labor 
system has been satisfactory. Progress in study 
has been rapid and thorough ; I venture to say, 
not excelled in any school of the same grade. 
There have been a steadiness and solidity of 
character and a spirit of self-denial developed, an 
appreciation of the value of opportunities mani- 
fested, which would not be possible under other 
conditions. Unfortunately there is a limit to the 
number who can be profitably employed. This 
Institute should, I think, be polytechnic — growing 
step by step, adding new industries as the old 
ones shall become established and remunerative ; 
thus enlarging the limits of paying labor and in- 
creasing the attendance, hoping finally to crown 
its ruder products with the results of finer effort 
in the region of art. 

47 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

There are two objective points before us, 
toward one or the other of which all our energies 
must soon be directed as the final work of this 
institution. One is the training of the intellect, 
storing it with the largest amount of knowledge, 
producing the brightest examples of culture ; the 
other is the more difficult one of attempting to 
educate in the original and broadest sense of the 
word, to draw out a complete manhood. The 
former is a laborious but simple work ; the latter 
is full of difficulty. It is not easy to surround the 
student with a perfectly balanced system of in- 
fluences. The value of every good appliance is 
limited, and ceases when not perfectly adjusted to 
the higher end. The needle, the broom, and the 
washtub, the awl, the plane, and the plow become 
the allies of the globe, the blackboard, and the 
textbook. 

The course of study does not run smoothly ; 
there is action and reaction, depression and de- 
light, but the reserve forces of character no longer 
lie dormant. They make the rough places smooth ; 
the school becomes a drill ground for future 
work ; it sends men and women rather than 
scholars into the world. 

But what should be studied in a course like 
this? The question brings us to the second branch 

48 



GENKRAI. ARMSTRONGS FIRST ANNUM. REPORT 

of our subject; namely, its moral and intellectual 
aspect. The end of mental training is a discipline 
and power, not derived so much from knowledge 
as from the method and spirit of the student. 
I think too much stress is laid on the importance 
of choosing one of the great lines of study, the 
classics or the natural sciences, and too little upon 
the vital matter of insight into the life and spirit of 
that which is studied. Latin, taught by one 
man, is an inspiration ; by another it is drudgery. 
Who can say that the study of this or that is 
requisite, without conditioning its value upon the 
fitness of the teacher ? Vital knowledge cannot 
be got from books; it comes from insight, and we 
attain it by earnest and steady thought under 
wise direction. 

But let us consider the practical question 
whether the classics should be made an object 
in our course, or whether, ruling them out, we 
should teach only the higher English studies. 

It is the theory of Matthew Arnold that a 
teacher should develop the special aptitudes; to 
ignore them is failure; the attempt to cast all 
minds in one mould is useless. But for one Anglo- 
African who would, on this theory, need to "ac- 
quire the ancient languages, there are, I believe, 
twenty whose best aptitude would find full scope 

49 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

in the study of the mother tongue and its htera- 
ture, supposing them to have a taste for language 
and for the higher pursuits of the human mind. 
Emerson says, " What is really best in any book 
is translatable — any real insight or broad human 
sentiment." He who has mastered the English, 
then, has within reach whatever is best in all 
literature. 

Our three years' course, with but little pre- 
liminary training, cannot be expected to furnish 
much. Our students could never become advanced 
enough in that time to be more than superficially 
acquainted with Latin and Greek; their knowl- 
edge would rather tend to cultivate their conceit 
than to fit them for faithful educators of their 
race, because not complete enough to enable them 
to estimate its true value. The great need of the 
Negro is logic, and the subjection of feeling to 
reason ; yet in supplying his studies we must exer- 
cise his curiosity, his love of the marvelous, and 
his imagination, as means of sustaining his en- 
thusiasm. 

An English course embracing reading and 
elocution, geography, mathematics, history, the sci- 
ences, the study of the mother tongue and its lit- 
erature, the leading principles of mental and moral 
science and of political economy, would, I think, 



50 



GENE«\I. ARMSTRONGS FIRST ANNUA!, REPORT 

make up a curriculum that would exhaust the best 
powers of nineteen-twentieths of those who would, 
for years to come, enter the Institute. Should, 
however, any pupil have a rare aptitude for the 
classics and desire to become a man of letters in 
the largest sense, it would be our duty to provide 
special instruction for him or send him where he 
could receive it. For such the Howard University 
at Washington oft'ers a broad and high plane of 
intellectual advantage. 

The question of co-education of the sexes 
is, to my mind, settled by most favorable experi- 
ence with the present plan. Our school is a little 
world; the life is genuine; the circle of influence 
is complete. The system varies industry and 
cheapens the cost of living. If the condition of 
woman is the true gauge of civilization, how should 
we be working, except indirectly, for a real ele- 
vation of society by training young men alone? 
The freed woman is where slavery left her. Her 
average state is one of pitiable destitution of what- 
ever should adorn and elevate her sex. In every 
respect the opportunities of the sexes should be 
equal, and two years of experience have shown 
that young men and young women of color may 
be educated together to the greatest mutual ad- 
vantage, and without detriment to a high moral 

standard. 

51 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

We now come to the consideration of the 
third branch of our subject; namely, the disciplin- 
ary features of the institution. No necessity has 
so far arisen for the adoption of a system of marks, 
prizes, or other such incentives. Expulsion has 
sometimes, though rarely, been resorted to. Our 
most perplexing cases have been those of honest, 
w^ell-meaning students, either of limited ability 
and fine character, or those of low propensity or 
childishness, or coarseness of character. One of 
the latter class may be a zealous student, and 
there may be a power in him that will be used in 
a good or bad cause; yet this evil trait will be 
quickly caught by the pliant and younger ones 
around him. He finally may become a strong and 
worthy man, but, meanwhile, great mischief is 
wrought; the tone of the school is lowered; many 
have learned wickedness of which they can scarcely 
be cured. The celebrated head master of Rugby 
said, " Till a man learns that the first, second, and 
the third duty of a schoolmaster is to get rid of 
unpromising subjects, a great public school will 
never be what it might be, and ^vhat it ought 
to be." A course of study, beyond the rudiments, 
is not best for all. I expect young men will be 
discharged, without dishonor, from this Institute, 
who will become eminent, partly because sent oft 
to travel a more difficult and heroic way. 

52 



GENERAL ARMSTRONGS FIRST ANNUAL REPOR1 

To implant right motive power and good hab- 
its, aided by the student's own perceptions, to 
make him train himself, is the end of discipline. 
Yet there is need of much external force, mental 
and moral, especially upon the plastic natures with 
which we deal. There must be study of the char- 
acter, advice, sympathy, and, above all, a judicious 
letting alone. 

Of all our work, that upon the heart is the 
most important ; there can be no question as to 
the paramount necessity of teaching the vital pre- 
cepts of the Christian faith, and of striving to 
awaken a genuine enthusiasm for the higher life 
that shall be sustained and shall be the strong 
support of the young workers who may go out 
to be examples to their race. 

In the history of our institution so far, we 
have cause for encouragement. Three shears ago 
this month our building began, with but $2000 on 
hand or in prospect ; for although the American 
Missionary Association selected and purchased 
this most fortunate spot and paid our running ex- 
penses, it could not offer the means of construc- 
tion. Already nearly $100,000 have been expended 
in permanent improvements, for which we may 
thank the Freedmen's Bureau and Northern bene- 
factors. I think we may reasonably hope to build 

53 



EDUCATION FOR LIFE 

Up here, on historic ground, an institution that will 
aid freedmen to escape from the difficulties that 
surround them, by affording the best possible 
agency for their improvement in mind and heart, 
by sending out, not pedagogues, but those whose 
culture shall be upon the ^vhole circle of living, 
and who, with clear insight and strong purpose, 
will do a quiet work that shall make the land 
purer and better. 



54 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 773 293 A 



